I had an interesting visit to Wal-Mart today. Of course they were
extremely busy with their after-Christmas 50% - off sales, returns and
people with gift cards. I fell into the latter category having
received two gift cards for Christmas presents. My daughter picked out
a couple of movies as well....she wanted four, but we negotiated, and
I picked out a new DVD player and took it to the sales counter. Guess
what? The gift cards wouldn't go through. They asked me if there was
money on them and I told them I didn't think my relatives would send
blank X-mas gift cards. The total was just under $100 and we had 2 $50-
dollar gift cards that I hate to carry around because I tend to forget
about them and some start to lose value. I also have so many throw
away, one-time use cards that they easily get lost in the shuffle or
stuck in a drawer and thus out of mind. Anyway, I was about to put the
items back and the cashier said only the link for Gift cards was
down...the one for credit cards worked fine. Hmmm. Being the skeptic I
am, not to mention an ornery old fart, I put the items back. Actually,
I go to WalMart a lot, so I can just pick up the items tomorrow, no
biggie. The more I thought about this, the more I wondered if this was
really a satellite glitch or a marketing ploy. I mean what better way
to increase sales than to not accept gift cards on the day most people
probably show up with the damn things, have them pay by either cash or
credit card, instead. People then have to come back again to use the
damn gift cards. I call them damn gift cards for this reason. They are
not cash and not the same as cash. How on earth people have bought
into this nonsense is beyond me. I mean, it used to be considered
tacky to send cash...yet everyone I know, including me, LOVES to get
cash...prefers it to gifts that I either recycle or throw away on a
routine basis. I think the people who sell gift cards are the ones who
are behind telling people money is a tacky gift. Funny what a company
will do for a measly billion dollars or so. dkw